Norweigan Fare

As I mentioned in this post, we’ve been studying countries and cultures. In conjunction with our study of Norway, we made recipes from the book Cooking the Norwegian Way.

For lunch, we made open-face sandwhiches and potato soup. For dinner, we made meatcakes, boiled potatoes and peas. Then for dessert, we made a whipped cream cake. (If we would have had a waffle iron, we would have had waffles for breakfast. But I read that porridge is common, so our oatmeal breakfast was at least slightly representative of what we might have eaten over there.)

After our day of consuming some typical Norwegian foods, we decided we’d love to visit Norway someday! 🙂

Open-Face Sandwiches

Start with:

Thickly sliced bread or rye crisp crackers

Top with any of the following:

softened butter or mayonnaise

lettuce

tomato

cucumber, thinly sliced

lemon, thinly sliced

hard-cooked eggs, thinly sliced

green pepper, cut into narrow strips

scrambled eggs

meat (authentically, it would have been sardines, shrimp, or ham, but we substituted turkey)

hard cheese, such as Jarlsbery or Swiss

Potato Soup

In a heavy 2-quart saucepan, put:

4 medium-sized potatoes, peeled and cut into quarters

1 onion, peeled and chopped well

1/2 tsp salt

enough filtered water to cover vegetables

Boil until a fork goes into the potatoes easily, about 15-20 minutes. Do not drain. Mash contents in the pan. Slowly add:

Shape into round patties. Fry them in a little butter or oil. When patties are browned, add:

1 to 2 cups water, beef broth, or milk (I used beef broth)

Lower heat and simmer patties until done, about 10 to 15 minutes. Remove from pan with slotted spoon. To make a gravy for the meatcakes, blend together:

1 to 2 tbsp flour (I used 1 tbsp arrowroot powder again)

a little cold water

Add to the water or broth used to cook the meatcakes. Stir until thickened, adding more flour if necessary. Season to taste with:

salt

pepper

onion, finely chopped

Boiled Potatoes

In a pan, place:

6 medium-sized potatoes or a greater number or small, new potatoes

1 tsp salt

Add enough cold water to just cover the potatoes. Cover the pan and place over high heat. Allow potatoes to boil until tender, about 15 or 20 minutes. When a fork goes into potatoes easily, drain off water. Put the lid back on the pan and retun to the stove to keep warm. (Make sure that the burner under the pan is off.) Add butter and parsley before seving.

Whipped Cream Cake

They say this layer cake is the most popular cake in Norway. Though I used a completely different cake recipe and omitted the fruit juice, I layered the cake with whipped cream and berries as is customary there. We couldn’t find the camera to take a picture before we devoured it. Maybe next time!

Once cakes are cooled, sprinkle a little fruit juice over the bottom layer of the cake. (This was the step I omitted. They recommended using juice from the same kind of fruit in the cake. I didn’t have strawberry juice and didn’t have enough strawberries to spare to mash some up to get juice. They did say that the layers can be altered by using any kinds of berries or jams desired, so I figured I was still within authentic limits to omit the juice. The cake was still scrumptious without it.)

Then spread a layer of whipped cream over the bottom layer. Cover with a generous layer of fruit. Place the second layer on top. Repeat the juice, whipped cream and fruit steps. Serve immediately, or refridgerate up to 2 hours, then serve.